Gotcha. Our old car only had liability insurance because comprehensive coverage cost more than the value of the car. It was trashed in an accident last year that was 100% the other driver’s fault, so we ended up getting some money towards our “new” car (2002), and since I owe money on it, it’s full coverage. It would be horrid to have to make years of payments on something we don’t own anymore. I think the bank required us to have full coverage as long as we owe anyway.
This can be rather dangerous advice. It is totally dependant on the land prices in your locale. Further the bank is going to require that you get coverage equal to the amount of they loaned you.
Like Ruby I’m a claims adjuster. I have only seen 1 or 2 over insured homes in 15 years. Those homes were huge $5 million plus homes. Nearly every Average Joe Home I’ve seen is insured for the right amount or under insured, especially contents. If you’ve owned your home for 10 years or more and haven’t raised the limits on your policy or don’t have Guaranteed Replacement or Rebuild Coverage, or an Inflation Guard endorsement you may end up getting a check for the policy limit which doesn’t equal the cost of replacing your home. I’ve been in the unfortunate position of having to write just such a check.
Lots of good advice on documentation but when it comes down to it what you want is sufficient limits and the proper coverage. On a homeowner’s policy your contents limits are a simple percentage of the coverage on the dwelling. Depending on the company you are insured with this could be far to small a percentage. This is especially true if you are paying for Replacement Cost Value (RCV) for your personal property. RCV means you get a new sofa for the 10 year old one burned up in the fire. It costs more but it’s worth it.
In answer to the OP, I’ve had Tenants or Homeowner’s coverage since I left college. In college my property was covered by my parents homeowner’s policy.
I live in an apartment that adjoins my landlords’ main house. While they may have some coverage for the property as a whole, I did get tenant’s insurance at the $20K level. It’s bundled in with my auto and I pay maybe $140 a year for the tenant’s part. My stuff doesn’t add up to that much so it would be sufficient.
I always wonder about this when I see shows like Extreme Home makeover where people had fires or floods and lost everything or are living in half-destroyed houses. Don’t these people have any insurance? I know with things like floods that you have to get riders to cover those specific things, but from those shows it seems like lots of people don’t have any insurance at all. I almost wish they would run a public service announcement with them, like “Don’t let this happen to you: get insurance! Ty Pennington is probably not going to come to your house if your own home is destroyed.”
Especially in cases where it looks like the family was in good financial shape before the event. Why didn’t they have insurance? This goes for life insurance too. If you have kids, you need life insurance. It is irresponsible not to have it.
I wonder about that too, when the one guy died from mold. Although, in his case they had to struggle to get a tiny house for their large family, so I guess they couldn’t afford life insurance??
They’ve got it backwards, though. The more your family depends on you for your income, the more you need life insurance. Millionaires with money in the bank can self-insure. Life insurance is cheap unless you have a terminal illness or something.
I know some people see it as an ‘extra’ but it is a necessity! So is a will! Argh. I will get off my soapbox now, I just have a sister and brother in law with 2 kids and no will and it drives me bonkers.
I guess I should answer the OP’s question while I’m at it 
Yes, we have homeowner’s insurance. And this thread has reminded me it’s time to make a videotape of the house, so thanks.
I’m insured. Not over-insured, but when I sat down with my insurance guy, we wnetover the sq footage of the house, figured the rebuilding costs per sq ft, then added more, because as my insurange guy said, "They things you like about your house - 4 fireplaces, 12’ ceilings, etc. - those won’t be replaced with the industry average building costs. My contents coverage is adequate. The more antiques I put in my 150 yr old house, the more often I should look at that. Liability-wise I’m pretty good, too. Becaise of my acreage, I have to have farm insurance, which seems to cover more than basic homeowners.
StG
The first thing to remember for all insurance is that the odds favor the insurance company.
That’s how they make money.
So if you can suffer the maximum loss, then you’re better off being self-insured.
For example, if you crash your car and put someone into the haspital, you might owe a couple years’ income. Since you can’t sustain that loss, you buy liability insurance.
But if your car never carries anything other than your briefcase and groceries, you are wasting money to get the contents covered for theft.
Same with renter’s. The liabilty portion may be covered by your other insurance, if for example your car is involved in knocking down the landlord’s fence.
The main thing to look for in renter’s insurance is not replacing your own property, but covering you for the big things like burning down the kitchen.
I got renter’s insurance as soon as I found out I wouldn’t be required to make a detailed inventory of everything I had, or (worse) take pictures or a videotape of it. My apartment is never clean enough to take pictures or videos inside.
This is what confuses me still. So say Anne gets robbed. She calls her insurance company and says what? All my stuff is gone? Will they only pay to replace what she can prove she has with receipts? That’s the part of my insurance policy that makes me nervous- I documented anyway just in case.
I just find it hard to believe the insurance company will take one’s word for what’s missing/burned/whatever. Or is it like “My DVD player is gone”, no proof, so they give you replacement value for the least expensive possible replacement?
I ask because I have one good friend who WAS robbed, and her son was burned out of his apartment and lost everything. In her case, she did have a detailed inventory so replacement was easy. In her son’s case, he had no insurance (renter) and lost everything.
Can anyone clarify this "You don’t need to document’ thing?
You don’t have to document to get the insurance, however, it makes making a claim much easier.
My coworker’s house burned down last year. She had to salvage what she could, they questioned her and her family to see if their descriptions matched. She said an agent also questioned her friends and extended family to see if they would agree that she had owned what she said she did. Not just big stuff either, her mother was questioned over a Precious Moments figurine collection. They looked at other family members’ photos of her house and contents. She says she will always make a video now, it was quite traumatic to have to prove every little thing while trying to deal with the loss. Making a video makes it easier for everyone involved.